Rath

Fieldnotes

I was expecting a bit more from this given Healy's notes below. However, most of the souterrains are now backfilled again since his excavations 122 years ago. You can just see the corbelling of one, the second as he describes it.
We had traipsed up the right-of-way lane just off the Johnstown to Freshford road. The rath is enormous, thoroughly overgrown (especially now in mid-June) and utterly compelling. The inner ditch is over 5 metres deep in places, the south-western arc being the most accessible. There is the remnants of an entrance here too. I can't guess the diameter, 50 metres could be close, but it may be much more. This would, in my estimation, have been a 'high-status' (dreadful term) habitation site. It's yet another of those places that could be marketed (yikes) to joe public as it really is impressive and even held a fascination for my not very interested companion.